Chapter 4 (The Red Successors) Summary

Setting: The setting is at home at the beginning, then at school in the middle, then back home again at the end.

Plot: The plot was that Ji-Li was insisted to stay at home by her parents because her name was in a Da-Zi-Bao. (Big Character Posters.) At school, the election of the red successors began. That’s when Ji-Li discovered that his grandfather was a landlord, far more badly than the “Five Black Categories”. Just because of that, she couldn’t be one of the red successors. She went home crying and had a conversation with her grandmother, and it was true. Her grandfather is a landlord. After that, Ji-Li had another conversation with her dad. Finally, the chapter ends by Ji-Li stroking a flower’s petal that was lonely as she was.

Analysis: The chapter is important to the story because it showed how troublesome the Cultural Revolution is, and that’s the main point of the whole book.